Conceive the joy of a lover of nature who, leaving the art galleries, wanders out among the trees and wild flowers and birds that the pictures of the galleries have sentimentalised. It is some such joy that the man who truly loves the noblest in letters feels when tasting for the first time the simple delights of Russian literature. French and English and German authors, too, occasionally, offer works of lofty, simple naturalness; but the very keynote to the whole of Russian literature is simplicity, naturalness, veraciousness.

Critic August Nemo selected seven short stories from authors who bring all the richness and quality of Russian literature:

- The Nose by Nikolai Gogol

- The Queen of Spades by Alexander Pushkin

- God Sees The Truth, But Waits by Leo Tolstoy

- The Bet by Anton Chekhov

- The Christmas Tree And The Wedding by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

- One Autumun Night by Maxim Gorky

- Lazarus by Leonid Andreyev

For more books with interesting themes, be sure to check the other books in this collection!